The present invention concerns a secure data processing method and system and is of particular application to a financial terminal.
In a data processing system it is usual to provide a programmable central processor unit, memory and other software and hardware components. It is desirable to provide a software and hardware environment where the user or operator of the system can trust all of the software and hardware components of the system. To achieve this objective some means has to be provided to decide whether the components of the system have been compromised either at initial installation of the components or at a later stage when new or upgraded components are introduced to the system.
For a data processing system including a programmable central processor unit it is important to authenticate the operating system of the central processor unit. If plug-in cards are used to provide upgrades to the functionality of the system it is also important to authenticate these plug-in cards. The means to authenticate the components of the data processing system must be such as to provide security for the authentication process itself if the authentication process is to be reliable in detecting any compromise of the components of the system.